


Shots Fired

by Padfoots_Pawprint



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Other, Worry, klance-ish?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 21:53:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8464417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padfoots_Pawprint/pseuds/Padfoots_Pawprint
Summary: He didn’t regret it. How could he? He had saved Lance’s life from certain death. He’d taken a bullet for him, and he’d do it again.And again.And again. So he did.





	

If anyone had told Keith that he’d enjoy taking hits for his self-proclaimed rival, he would have laughed outright. Not a strong, healthy laugh, mind you, but a sharp bark before he walked away. Team or no, Keith didn’t like taking the fall for just anyone, but Lance was _somebody;_ someone dear to him. Which is why it felt second nature to pull him out of the way as a burning Galra bullet seared the side of his leg and cracked through white paladin armour.

“Keith! What are you doing?” They were in what Shiro would have called a tight situation or what Pidge might have characterized as a serious miscalculation. They had been separated, outnumbered, and exhausted from fighting the foot soldiers Zarkon was sending after them. Keith was dealing close range while Lance was sending wave after wave of shots at the enemy.

Keith stumbled back, the shield on his right hand flaring up to protect himself from an attack. Lance fought back the hoard as best he could, although Keith could feel Lance's burning stare every once and a while. He was worried; that much was obvious.

“Why can't these be bigger?” grumbled Keith as he tried to regain the ground he'd lost.

“Dude, you need to stop. You're going to kill yourself.”

“I know what I'm doing.”

“You shouldn't have grabbed me out of the way. I would've put up my shield in time.”

“Bullshit and you know it.”

“Thanks, Keith, but-” Keith noted the barrage of shots headed for Lance's back and lunged into action. The injury on his leg made the shield unstable and Keith felt himself crumble as two shots ripped through his flesh. He could see the horror in Lance's face as he fell, could feel the burn where his skin had been whole and had to watch in horror as Lance's expression grew vengeful. With a battle cry, Lance returned to the fight with a ferocity that did not suit him. The battle sounds mingled with the sounds of Lance shouting at him, to ' _stay the fuck awake or else_ '.

Even when he was trying to help, Lance was annoying as _fuck_.

“Keith! Keith!” Lance's face was suddenly right on top of his, short brown hair all frazzled now that the helmet was off. When had Lance stopped shouting? When had he stopped fighting? Keith craned his neck around Lance's head and saw a flash of green. “Shiro's here with the team. You're going to be okay.” He tried to sit up, and with Lance's arms to stabilize him, he could see the rest of Team Voltron battling the onslaught on soldiers just behind the Blue Paladin's shoulder.

“Should help,” he grunted, the pain flaring up dangerously as Lance moved him.

“Can't. You need a healing pod stat. Shiro's got this.”

“But-”

“Go, Keith,” came Shiro's firm command. “We'll be right behind you.”

Lance set to maneuvering Keith so he could carry him on his back. Amidst all the grunting, Lance got a good grip and hoisted Keith up. “Heading back,” said Lance before leaving out the nearest hallway towards the spot where his lion was no doubt waiting. Lance tried to keep his strides been but between his huffs of breath and the shaky hand that gripped Keith's legs, he could tell Lance was more than upset.

“What-”

“Not now, Keith,” snapped Lance. He drew the pair of them up through the halls, chugging along as their heavy breathing mingled in the dankness of the cavern they were approaching. Blue showed herself as they reached the head of the cave and Lance pulled them through her maw. Once up into the cockpit, Lance lowered him into the pilot seat with delicacy, but he was back at Blue's controls in an instant with harsh movements and sharp flying. “I'm going to the castle,” he said aloud and Shiro's face lit up the screen.

“That's good. The shots were hot enough to cauterize so he won't be bleeding out but the pain will be intense. We have to avoid infection. Make sure he gets to the pods as soon as possible."

“Yes, sir.”

Despite the burning pain, Keith could still take in the barrage of stars on the other side of the window as Lance flew. He stared at Lance's back, the sound of his breathing and Blue's humming thrusters filling the cockpit. It was still too quiet. He could see the muscles in Lance's jaw flex as he flew and Keith wanted to speak, wanted to ask him what was wrong, why he was so _angry_. He opened his mouth, but Lance spoke first.

“You better be awake, Keith, or so help me-”

“You'll what? Hit me?” Maybe it was insensitive considering that Keith was sort of dying, and that even if he wasn't going to die, he was quite injured.

Lance paled, and he snarled over at Keith, “I'll eject you into space.”

“No, you wouldn't.”

“I would. You're such an idiot that you might not even notice your own combustion.”

“Harsh,” huffed Keith, wishing that Lance would just look at him. After all these years of fighting with one another. Keith could still feel Lance's stare when he thought Keith wasn't looking. It had bothered him then, but now? Now its absence would haunt him if he didn't get it back. Could it really be possible that the one thing he'd want on his death bed was Lance's undivided attention? It felt like they'd switched positions with Lance burning, and Keith craving someone's eyes on him. “Lance-”

“I don't want to talk, mullet. You can talk it out so I know you're not dying, but I don't need much more than that.”

“You're really angry, aren't you?” When Lance did not respond, Keith persisted. “I don't know why. We're going to defeat the colony, I'm moments away from a healing pod _and_ I saved your life. Why do you have to be so difficult?” Nothing. “I don't get why this bothers you. You've been trying to kill me since day one.”

That wasn't it. They both knew. The fights had long since turned into playful jabs. It was an asshole-ish thing to say and the wobble in Lance's voice gave rise to that.

“Don't say that.”

“What, that you-”

“You're not gonna die,” he said instead. “You're too important, even if you are an idiot trying to catch bullets.”

“I'm not...” Keith trailed off, thinking of what Lance was saying with a growing horror flaring in his gut. Or perhaps it was a ghost of Galra bullets ribbing through his stomach. “Do you really think that?”

“That you're an idiot? 'Cause after today's stunt, I think I have permission to call you that as long as I want.”

“You think I'm important.”

“Every part of Voltron is important.”

“Except you, apparently,” said Keith, and watched Lance stiffen. “How could you think that? You're just as important as I am, if not more so. If you died, we'd be devastated.”

“I'm replaceable,” snapped Lance. “You're not. Deal with it.”

“I-”

Lance cut him off with an incoming transmission from Allura. He answered with false enthusiasm and half-hearted cheer. The moment the call ended, Keith could feel the rumble of Blue docking in her bay. Her mewl of concern was lost in the bustle Lance was in getting Keith into a pod.

“Lance,” breathed Keith. He'd live with three bullet holes in him apparently. Amazing. The blue paladin ignored him, taking on an uncharacteristic calm as he carried Keith out of his lion. He didn't rise to any of Keith's taunts or pleads. When they got to the deck, Allura helped carry a wheezing Keith towards the healing pods. Coran changed him in moments and the next thing he knew, he was being placed in a healing pod.

“Lance,” he tried again. A last ditch attempt. He had to tell Lance that it wasn't true. None of it. That he'd protected him with only the thought of how _important_ he was to Keith and to their team. How he was irreplaceable. He had to-

“See you in a couple hours buddy.”

“I'm sorry,” came out instead.

Lance shook his head, a pained smile shifting brown skin.

“No. You're not.”

Keith was fast asleep.


End file.
